


Long Flight

by meanie13



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Flight Attendants, But I love Markhyuck, Butler!Doyoung, Captain!Johnny, Don't read if you're triggered by mentions of funerals, Donghyuck is sad only for a while, Donghyuck's grandfather dies in this, Flight Attendant!Jungwoo, Fluff, How Do I Tag, I suck at tagging, Just for plot purposes, M/M, Mark Lee (NCT) is Whipped, Minor Character Death, One Shot, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pilot!Jaehyun, Purser!Yuta, Sad Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Soft Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Sorry Hyuck's grandpa, chef!Taeyong, flight attendant!taeil, it's just mentioned, markhyuck-centric, pilot!Mark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25730152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanie13/pseuds/meanie13
Summary: ‘Hey there, sailor, never seen you before,’ he said mockingly, leaning against the cabin wall with practised ease.Mark snorted and turned the handle of the lavatory and let himself in smoothly with a, ‘Yeah, not today, Satan,’ thrown behind his back.Or, the five times Mark saw Donghyuck, and the one time he reallysawhim.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 4
Kudos: 92





	Long Flight

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to post this for Mark's birthday but oh well. This is my first NCT fic please be nice to me TT. Also, I wrote the ending to this through a haze of painkillers, so please ignore any mistakes! This was also supposed to be 1k words, but it went out of control lol.  
> Trigger Warning: Mentions of death (Hyuck's grandpa dies of old age, it's glossed over), funerals and wakes. If this makes you uncomfortable, please don't read this work. Or, please skip "They were all eating breakfast when..." that comes just before the third page break, and restart at "The crew returned to the take-off site...", after the third page break.  
> Enjoy your read!

The first time Mark saw Lee Donghyuck, he was flirting unabashedly with, or rather, at the newly recruited flight attendant Jungwoo, who looked mildly flattered, but mostly terrified. He had exited the cockpit to use the lavatory, after asking Yuta to take his place, and when he suddenly heard a burst of tinkling laughter, he had looked up and met Donghyuck’s eyes. Donghyuck, who paused mid-sentence at the appearance of the other. Donghyuck, whose eyes grew round when they chanced upon Mark and then took on a slightly dangerous lasciviousness. Donghyuck, who then sauntered up to Mark who was frozen at the entrance to the facilities, one hand on the handle, like a beast stalking prey.

‘Hey there, sailor, never seen you before,’ he said mockingly, leaning against the cabin wall with practised ease.

Mark snorted and turned the handle of the lavatory and let himself in smoothly with a, ‘Yeah, not today, Satan,’ thrown behind his back.

He later learned from Jungwoo that Donghyuck had shrugged good-naturedly at that and moved back to his seat, but he had pouted for the rest of the trip.

***

The second time Mark saw Donghyuck, he had just woken up from his bunk rest, refreshed and ready to relieve First Officer Jaehyun. Unfortunately the curtains that would have kept him from the view of the passenger cabins were wide open as he emerged from the bunk reserved for the pilots, and he jerked to a stop at the sight of Donghyuck lounging complacently on one of the luxurious seats, contemplating between the DVDs he held in each hand, before he shrugged and tossed the one he didn’t want in the general direction of the attendant, who scrambled to catch the airborne case. Mark admitted to himself later, grudgingly, that he should have bolted to the cockpit the moment he saw the boy, but instead he had oh so unwillingly paused, and when the subject of his unwillingness looked up at him, it had been only been to offer a tentative smile his way. Mark, upon later introspection, agreed with himself that it was too dangerous to try mingling with him, likening it to the sort of perils that would come out of trying to dance with the Devil. 

***

His Captain, Johnny, commented on it offhandedly the third time it happened. Mark had given up trying to deny his interest in the boy and was resigned to letting the stupid part of his brain, the part that harboured a teeny weeny crush on him (but you didn’t hear that from me), take control of his actions and break some unwritten protocols about not exiting the cockpit while in flight more times than necessary by slipping out under the pretext of having a tiny bladder and endeavouring to catch a glimpse of the boy, however fleeting.

‘This is a pretty chill aircraft because it’s privately owned, but you step out of here one more time to ogle our passenger, I’ll be forced to write you up. I’m actually legally bound to.’

Mark sputtered for a millisecond before he rounded on Johnny with an indignant, ‘I wasn’t ogling him! I was just-’

‘Just what?’

He mumbled something along the lines of “checking up on him he looks my age”. It was true, he had started his training the moment he had turned 18, and 3 years hence gave him plenty of flight hours to fly as a Second Officer on private jets. It also helped that they, a flight crew of 8, flew the same route every three months, like clockwork. It was barely any work, albeit a little exhausting. They only had one passenger, their employer’s only son, Lee Donghyuck, who could be a handful sometimes so it was mostly just the attendants running around fulfilling his wishes, really. They would pick him up from a small airport near New York City, where he studied, fly him halfway across the planet, deposit him at a landing strip near Seoul where a chauffeured car waited to whisk him away to god knows where. And without fail he would return the next day, wave goodbye to his chauffeur who would tip his hat to him, skip two or three steps on the boarding ramp and bounce into the small aircraft with all the joyful abandon of a young boy who knew no worries. It was interesting to say the least, and most of the crew had running wagers on what went on in the 24 hours that he had in his homeland. Some of the more colourful guesses included Yuta’s “He’s secretly working for the CIA bro; they know something is up with Mr. Lee so they recruited the one person he would absolutely trust: his son,” theory. Taeil, sometimes the only voice of reason on the crew, countered that with a, “but how would they even turn him against his own family?” To which Yuta had only one reply: “A professional mix of brainwashing techniques and Yogic hypnotization.”

The others threw in their own theories, ranging from “his father’s enemies always looking to kidnap him and extort money from the family, duh” supplied helpfully by Jungwoo; to “he probably doesn’t want anything to do with the family business which is why he went abroad, he’s a sweet kid, I don’t really see him trying to fit in with that shady crowd,” surmised by Taeyong, who doted on him, often going to great lengths to procure exotic ingredients for his meal of the day.

Doyoung, the only member of the crew who had actually been part of the original staff for Donghyuck back when he was a kid and still lived in South Korea, pursed his lips at that and replied, ‘You’re actually not far off Taeyong. He’s pretty talented, and very different from the rest of the family. I don’t know if he wanted to study away from them, or they made it happen but he moved when he turned 14. Has been there since. I don’t know anything else, though,’ he shrugged.

‘Wait, you were staff even then? You must have only been a few years older than him-’ Jaehyun cut himself off hurriedly when he saw the look of disappointment in Doyoung’s face.

‘Literally how many times do I have to tell you that my family serves his family. We actually lived in the same mansion as the rest of the Lees, I was born there, in fact, and I’m a whole 4 years older than him. I remember playing with him and his siblings quite often,’ Doyoung started reminiscing about the good old days and that was everyone’s cue to drop the subject.

***

Mark knew something was wrong the moment Donghyuck boarded, he hadn’t done any of his circus tricks, his usual sunshine smile was gone, replaced by a deep frown. All thoughts of this being the fourth time fled from Mark’s brain, and he could only wonder and worry about what had gotten into the boy. The circumstances of the flight were unusual enough, and they had been scheduled under such short notice that they were flying almost barebone. Doyoung was unavailable, Jungwoo on a leave of absence, and Taeyong hadn’t responded to the call, so Taeil had to run around even more so than usual. This was the first time their routine had been disrupted, it had only been three weeks since Donghyuck had returned to New York after his visit to Seoul, and his being called back so suddenly could only mean that something had happened. Mark couldn’t help worrying over the boy, and his concern for the other was so apparent that Jaehyun steered him into the private bunk and sat him down with a firm hand after take-off. ‘Stay here until you’ve shaken… whatever this is, off. You’re bringing down the energy in the cockpit with all that negativity,’ he stated. He reached a hand out to stop Mark from rising and added a, ‘Don’t try to talk to him or something, we’re just following his family’s orders and we’re not here to make friends, okay?’ as an afterthought.

They had all been put up for the night in a hotel near the family mansion, on standby to take Donghyuck back whenever they were required to do so, and if Mark didn’t sleep a wink that after learning from Taeil that Donghyuck didn’t speak a word to anyone or eat anything on the 15-hour flight, nobody needed to know.

They were all eating breakfast and debating if one of them should visit the Lee mansion to find out what the hell was going on when Doyoung called. They gathered round Johnny’s phone as he answered and on seeing the look on everybody’s faces, he slowly lowered the phone from his ear and put it on speaker. Doyoung’s voice came out tinny on the phone as he started without preamble, ‘Hyuck’s grandfather passed away yesterday. He had been bedridden for a while now and had requested to see Donghyuck before, you know. I think he died in peace after speaking to his favourite grandchild. Anyway, you should attend the funeral service, it’s in three days. And I think Donghyuck will be leaving immediately after that. Stay in the hotel, everything has been paid for. I’ll call in three days.’

***

The fifth time Mark saw Donghyuck, he was withdrawn, eyes red and face gaunt. He was surrounded by his family but he looked like he was completely alone. Mark wanted to go to him, he wanted to hold him, but one look at the aisle down which he’d have to walk to get to him from his seat among the crew members and other staff that didn’t matter, and all his courage failed him. Only the thought of being able to see him in the jet sustained him. He wondered at his own eagerness to go comfort a boy he had seen a grand total of four times, and spoken to, like once; he had a vague idea of exactly why his heart flipped each time he saw him, why his entire body was being tugged in Donghyuck’s general direction, and why he was so concerned for his wellbeing, but he squashed down all his inner turmoil, to be revisited at a later date (read: never).

The room for the wake was full of mourning family members, friends, and other people Donghyuck’s grandfather had known, but the only ones truly grieving were some close friends of his, the household staff and Donghyuck himself. After the service was over, which was surprisingly soon what with the Lee family being the epitome of efficiency, Doyoung led a trembling Donghyuck away from the room and assisted him in packing for his journey back.

The crew returned to the take-off site, the jet prepped and ready on the steaming tarmac when Donghyuck arrived. He looked worse than he had that morning, if that was even possible, his normally beautifully tanned face, white and haggard. He skipped his usual seat and approached the seat farthest from the cockpit and sank down in defeat. Doyoung had warned everyone to give the boy some space, but all those warning glances flew straight out of Mark’s head when he was crossing the aisle to get to the kitchen and heard a tiny little sob from the general vicinity of Donghyuck’s seat.

He turned sharply at the sound and froze mid-step, eyes wide as his mind raced to calculate all the possible repercussions of plopping himself down in the seat next to him and lending the boy his shoulder to cry on, when he decided to throw all caution to the wind and did just what he had been wanting to do.

He heard Donghyuck’s sob catch in his throat the moment he sat down and hoped that he wasn’t grossly overstepping boundaries and was just thinking of standing up and going back to minding his own business when the boy looked up.

His brown hair was falling in unruly curls over his forehead and his eyes were big and shiny with unshed tears. Mark felt an insane urge to reach out and pat his head, run his fingers through his hair, cup his cheeks, touch him in some way, in _any_ way, but thankfully his brain caught up to his instincts in time and he settled on a simple, “Hi,” instead.

He barely heard the reciprocal greeting, but he ploughed on bravely.

‘I’m Mark. I’m the second officer on this jet.’

‘I’m Donghyuck, but you probably already know that,’ he trailed off uncertainly, but he perked up again when he heard Mark’s giggle.

‘Do you wanna talk? I know that’s probably against protocols and stuff but you look like you could use a distraction.’

Donghyuck pouted, and Mark’s heart gave out. ‘You called me Satan the first time I saw you!’

His heart stuttered back to start when Donghyuck looked at him imploringly, all round eyes and red cheeks. ‘Uh, I uh, we’ve all kinda been told to stay away from you? By Doyoung?’

The boy giggled angelically into one sweater-pawed fist causing Mark to think to himself grimly that if he had to witness any more of these adorable exhibits he might just spontaneously self-combust.

‘I didn’t know I was that scary…’

‘No, we’re more scared of what Doyoung will do to us if we disobey so- yeah.’

‘My father must have told Doyoung hyung to say that to all of you,’ he frowned with distaste.

Mark decided to stay silent.

And it’s probable that Donghyuck took that entirely the wrong way because he slumped back down in his seat and started fiddling with the ends of his sweater, looking downcast.

‘Oh no no no, please don’t- don’t look like that, come on-’

‘Look like what?’ And when Mark was subjected to the persuasive powers of Donghyuck’s big, kicked puppy eyes for the second time that night, it was a wonder really that he could get the next few words out of his mouth without stumbling all over them.

‘Can I show you something pretty?’

*

‘Where are you taking me Mark? Hey, you have to tell me where you’re-’

Mark turned around and shushed him with an involuntary finger on Donghyuck’s lips that he went crossy-eyed trying to look at, and with a “You’ve got to keep quiet or else we’re going to get caught,” he grabbed the boy’s wrist and led him along the aisle towards the cockpit. They pushed through the thick curtains that kept the galley hidden from the cabin and halted abruptly when they spotted Yuta leaning against the wall, smirking slightly.

‘Yuta? Shouldn’t you be in your bunk right now?’

‘Oh and miss all the fun of seeing you two lovebirds trying to sneak-’

‘We’re not-’

‘Wait you’re Yuta? You’re the main guy around here?’

‘It’s called being a Purser, kid.’

‘Wait, why have I never seen you then?’

Yuta looked mildly discomfited by the question Donghyuck had thrown him, opting to shrug instead of giving him a straight answer.

A look of understanding replaced the one of confusion on Donghyuck’s face as he contemplated the answer. ‘Wait it’s because you’re only allowed to serve my dad, right? That’s it, isn’t it? I’m not as high priority as him, right?’

‘Look, weren’t you guys about to go into the pilots’ bunk? Stop bothering me and go makeout or something,’ Yuta huffed and brushed past them, with a last parting gift of something that sounded suspiciously like “Kids these days” thrown their way.

‘We aren’t going to makeout! We-’

‘Come on Mark,’ Donghyuck effectively shut the pilot up.

Mark opened a hatch in one corner of the ceiling and lowered a ladder. He gestured for Donghyuck to climb up the hatch first and when both of them had climbed into the pilots’ bunk, he retracted the ladder and shut the hatch.

‘Well you’re getting very forward, aren’t you, shutting the door?’

‘Shut up Donghyuck.’

The boy laughed at Mark’s poor attempts to conceal his embarrassment, and Mark’s brain filed the sounds of his chortles away under “Tinkling, Crystals, Angelic” and “Replay Several Thousand Times”.

Mark made his way through the tiny bunk to the front, where a window that was larger than the ones in the cabin was positioned, and grabbed the handle of the shade. He turned to Donghyuck, grinned, and threw the shades open in one fell swoop.

Warm oranges and reds washed over Donghyuck as he slowly walked to where he was standing, the setting sun throwing brilliant buttery beams of sunshine over the boy’s tan skin, making him glow almost from the inside out, setting his brown hair alight, painting him ethereal. He came to a standstill next to Mark, so close that he could count the moles dotting his skin and Mark was this close to giving in to the urge to trace out the lines connecting them, map out that constellation with his finger, and it was all he could do to stop himself.

Donghyuck saved him from the ordeal by finally remarking on the sight before them. ‘This is so beautiful, I’ve never seen this view before!’

Mark stubbornly beat down his brain’s ready response to say something embarrassing like “Yeah” or worse, blurt out a “You’re the one that's beautiful”, and gave him a mechanical answer. ‘Well this window looks out the front of the jet, just like the one in the cockpit, and since we’re flying west you can typically see sunsets like these around this hour.’

‘It really is stunning,’ Donghyuck hummed. They stood at the window for a couple of minutes until the sun completely dipped below the horizon and all that was left behind in the sky were smidges of purple, orange and yellow. He then turned around as though to take a better look at where they had come up to, and made a noise of confusion. ‘Hyung, where are we?’

Mark refused to acknowledge the honorific the boy had used, deciding to stow that away in a deep corner of his mind and answered him. ‘This is uh, a private… kind of sleeping quarters for the pilots. Since it’s a pretty long flight, we take turns to get some rest here. The attendants have their own bunks towards the end of the plane as well.’

‘Oh wow, I didn’t know this place existed.’ He surveyed the tiny space, snickered at the haphazard way someone had tried to right the bedsheets (probably Jaehyun, the one time Mark had visited the other officer's apartment in Seoul he had logged off from the conversation after noticing that the pilot slept without sheets. On a four-poster bed. In a fancy pad. In a posh neighbourhood.) ‘Am I even allowed in here?’

Mark laughed sheepishly and scratched his neck. ‘Probably not, but it’s alright. I can get away with anything round here to be honest.’

Donghyuck did the giggling-into-his-sweater-paws thing again and Mark was starting to seriously consider dropping to his knees and worshipping the very ground the boy walked on but he was interrupted by his sweet response. ‘I don’t doubt it, with those big eyes of yours you probably have everyone wrapped around your finger.’

‘I could say the same about you,’ Mark mumbled but the other boy didn’t hear him, or pretended not to.

It had turned fully dark outside the jet and they were nearing landing. Mark sighed and led the boy back to his seat. ‘I gotta go up front, prepare for landing. You gonna be okay?’

Donghyuck nodded, his eyes twinkling. Mark turned around to head back to the cockpit but he was stopped by a warm hand curled around his wrist, and a soft voice whispered, ‘Thank you.’ Mark smiled at the boy.

When they had landed and Donghyuck got off the plane, Mark had only a moment’s respite before he was swamped by crew members. News had apparently travelled very fast.

‘What were you doing in the pilots’ bunk?’

‘Were you two sucking faces?’

‘Wait, does this mean you’re dating now?’

‘What were you thinking?!’

It was Doyoung’s agitated whisper-yell that snapped Mark out of his silence. He stared at the butler as if he had grown two heads. ‘What do you mean, hyung?’

‘You know exactly what I meant Mark Lee, don’t act coy now. I told you, all of you, to stay away from the boy. It’s literally the only thing I’ve been asking all of you to do from the very beginning. Fly him to and fro, don’t interact with him unless absolutely necessary and don’t even attempt to have a casual conversation with him. We’re here on his father’s payroll, only as a flight crew, not to make friends. We are very beneath the Lees, and we will always be, or have you forgotten that, Mark?’

Mark hadn’t forgotten. The conversation, more like briefing that the elder had given him the very first day was still fresh in his head, like it had happened yesterday. So no, Mark hadn’t forgotten, but he was tired, so tired of all the protocols and the rules and the etiquettes. To hell with them all. But he wasn’t going to say that to Doyoung. Instead he rounded on him. ‘Hyung, all I did was try to comfort a grieving boy, someone who’s pretty much the same age as us. If any of us had met him outside of this setting we wouldn’t have hesitated to strike up a conversation with him, don’t even try to deny it. I’ve seen the way all of you step on eggshells around him but I know all of you are secretly concerned. I’ve seen the way Taeil hyung has this pained expression whenever Donghyuck is being dramatic and throwing around weird requests, but he complies with all of them anyway. Taeyong hyung always does his best to make sure Donghyuck gets to eat stuff that is close to home-cooked food, because he knows he won’t get to eat that anywhere else.

‘And you, hyung, you’re such a fucking hypocrite,’ Mark heard a sharp gasp but he ploughed on, ‘you say all this stuff but you’re the one that cares the most. If you didn’t want any of us to get close to him, why would you ask us to come to the wake, where you knew Donghyuck would be at his most vulnerable, to pity him? To look at him and thank our stars it’s him and not any one of us?’

‘Of course not! I would never-’ Doyoung faltered, but seemed to only get incensed further at the slightly triumphant look on the face of the other, and he continued, ‘You know it’s not any of that! I love Donghyuck like, like my own brother, and yes, I called all of you to the wake so that he would have some familiar faces to look at. We’re probably the closest he has to friends, even. But I can’t, I can’t say any of that to you and risk losing my job, and all of yours!’

‘Doie hyung? You think we’re friends? You love me like your own brother?’

Everyone whipped around to look at the passenger door where the voice had come from. Donghyuck stood there, a look of hope on his face that was slowly fading into uncertainty the longer everyone stood in silence. Without a word Taeil handed him his small carry-on, which he had forgotten, which had caused him to walk in on this fragile moment.

Doyoung’s face underwent a series of changes as he struggled to come up with a response and Mark would have found it funny in a different place, in a different time. As it was, he looked a fish out of water, eyes wide and hands close to flapping.

Donghyuck probably decided that he wasn’t going to get a satisfactory reply and made to climb back down the airstairs and be on his way when Doyoung stopped him. Something in his face must have given him away because Donghyuck threw his arms around the butler and buried his face in his neck. Doyoung looked a second away from a freak-out, but that didn’t stop him from wrapping his arms around the boy and warmly returning the embrace.

Donghyuck let go when he spotted Mark and stepped towards him. A determined expression crossed his face and before Mark knew it, he had an armful of the boy. Mark couldn’t stop himself from inhaling his sweet scent, he had long since given up on reining in his body’s violent responses to anything the boy did. ‘How long were you standing there for, Hyuck?’

Donghyuck’s warm breath fanned across his ear, tickling him as he answered him with a giggle, ‘Long enough.’

***

The eleventy-fifth time Mark saw Donghyuck, (he had been asked to stop keeping count, entreated to even, “it’s a very cliché move Markie” “but I want to!” “Mark Lee!” “Okay fine! Jeez”), he dragged him without a word back to the pilots’ bunk and with a mounting sense of déjà vu, threw open the shades on the window.

The sunset outside was identical to the one they had experienced together many moons ago, in a way only sunsets are. The sunset outside was different to the one Mark had shown a lonely boy in an attempt to alleviate his grief, because now they knew each other, and neither of them were any of the things they were when they had first met. The sunset outside was magical, because after all, they had each other now, and they sealed that thought with a warm kiss, warm just like the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> I was this close to naming this either "Enjoy Your Flight" or "Long Ass Ride" lmao. I'm sorry that this was a bit of an open-ending, if you were looking forward to a more concrete explanation of them getting together or something and got disappointed. They do get together! I just haven't made that very obvious.  
> All the terms I used with respect to airplanes are real, all I did was Google them. The pilots' bunk actually exists, but there is no window. I added that for the plot, where else am I going to make these two idiots stand and watch the sunset?  
> Thank you for reading to the end! As always, kudos and comments are much appreciated.  
> You can hmu on Twitter [here](https://twitter.com/meanie137)


End file.
